Top students prepare for summer internships

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By Karen T. Braeckel
HSPA Foundation

We recently heard an editor say, “Wait! Let me do a dance on my desk.”

A personal celebration of spring?

No. She just got word that one of the 10 talented Eugene S. Pulliam interns would join her staff this summer.

The 2015 class came from 55 applicants attending 20 colleges and will serve internships at HSPA-member newspapers.

To qualify, each student must either reside in Indiana or attend an Indiana college or university and have at least one semester of coursework remaining. (The committee reviewed 35 completed and eligible applications.)

The females outnumbered the males again this year six to four. At least half of the interns – both male and female – have extensive experience in sports reporting and editing.

Seven attend Indiana University, while the other three students come from Ball State, Butler and the University of Southern Indiana. Eight call Indiana home. One comes from Michigan and another from Ohio.

Danielle Grady majors in journalism/telecommunications news at Ball State. She currently serves as the features editor at the Daily News with other stints as an enterprise reporter, chief features reporter and staff reporter.

After spending a summer in a factory with no air conditioning, she looks forward to a paid internship to expand her experience and portfolio. Shea Van Hoy will give her the opportunity at the News and Tribune in Jeffersonville.

Alison Graham’s parents, understanding the importance of an internship, agreed to drive their daughter from the northside of Indianapolis to Avon every day. After her freshman year at IU, she interned at the International PressInstitute in Vienna, Austria. Only a sophomore, she has managed the campus and arts desks at the Indiana Daily Student.

This summer she will learn community journalism under the tutelage of Kathy Linton and staff at the Hendricks County Flyer, the 2014 HSPA Foundation Nondaily Blue Ribbon winner.

Bradie Gray from the University of Southern Indiana served as sports editor and features editor at The Shield. One semester she carried a full load and interned in the sports department of the Evansville Courier and Press.

She will work at The Courier-Times in New Castle under Lisa Perry. The newspaper celebrates its 175th anniversary this summer, and archival research awaits.

Lyndsay Jones, an IU student, will work at another award-winning nondaily. She will intern under Sara Clifford at the Brown County Democrat in Nashville. She earned her internship through her storytelling skills.

She began as a general assignment reporter at the IDS, and her adviser says she carved out her own niche on the region desk. She possesses a knack for examining people, places and things that go unnoticed.

Each year the selection committee tries to identify one intern interested in photojournalism and multimedia. Tae-Gyun Kim from IU will fill that slot this year.

A native of South Korea, he attended high school in Bloomington.

He interned at the second largest newspaper in Uganda in 2014 and published a photo story about three HIV-positive families.

His photojournalism professor calls him exceptionally talented. He will work at the Kokomo Tribune with Jeff Kovaleski and the staff photographers.

Grace Palmieri comes from West Lafayette and attends IU, where she majors in journalism. In the fall of 2014 she served as sports editor of the IDS. The year before she worked as a beat writer for IU football, women’s basketball and men’s and women’s swimming and diving.

She knows stories are everywhere and recently delved into crime reporting. She will intern at the Herald-Journal in Monticello with Daniel Thompson.

Katelyn Rowe, a photographer and one of the youngest art directors ever at the IDS, will move a little west of home in Georgetown, Ind., to the Ferdinand News to help Kathy Tretter and staff on their 175th and other special sections. Her main contribution will be on the design side of things.

Andrew Vailliencourt (the first of two Andrews in this class) hails from Michigan and will intern in northern Indiana at the Pharos-Tribune in Logansport. This IU student works in sports at the IDS as the beat writer for IU baseball, men’s soccer and women’s volleyball. He also has a lot of radio experience – mostly in sports.

Matthew VanTryon, managing editor for The Butler Collegian, began as a sports reporter and worked his way up to sports editor. His freshman year he wrote an investigative piece with detailed allegations from former women’s basketball players against their head coach. She was fired within a week of the publication.

He also covered Carmel elected officials off campus. He will learn the ropes of a daily newspaper this summer while working with Tina McGrady at the Journal Review in Crawfordsville.

Andrew Wittry from Ohio also majors in journalism at IU and began his career as (you guessed it) a sports reporter and beat writer for women’s tennis, IU football, the Indy 500 and men’s basketball. He became sports editor before assuming the Bloomington Police Department beat.

An Ernie Pyle Scholar, he traveled to London last summer to intern with the United Kingdom Sports Association. He will call The Madison Courier home this summer and work with Elliot Tompkin.

We wish interns and newspaper staffs alike a summer filled with great educational experiences and professional growth.

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HSPA Foundation board member Curt Jacobs of The Madison Courier recently was diagnosed with thymus cancer at the Mayo Clinic.

He will start chemo at the IU Medical Center for this rare type of the disease.

His mother, Jane, is also quite ill in a Louisville hospital. Please remember the Jacobs family in your thoughts and prayers.

Karen T. Braeckel is director of the HSPA Foundation.